When I pulled my C&C 24, I had a little keel smile, too. I got the yard to work with me to brake the keel bolt nuts free. It required just a little heat, too.
We then raised the jack stands so I had about 3/4"-1" gap between the keel and the bottom of the boat. I really could not have gone more with the nuts of the bolts. I did not want to remove the nuts of the bolts. I then scraped and cleaned out the area really well. I chipped away a bit of the gel coat that was part of the crack. I ended up exposing some loose fiberglass above the keel. Good thing was everything seem dry. I then filled the gap with 2 tubes of boatlife lifecaulk. Laying a big bed in the middle to out to about 1/2" from the edge. I then cranked up the keel from inside the boat. Caulk squirted out of the seam. I wiped it off with clean rags, leaving excess material around the previous gap. We then lowered the boat on the keel and added another 1/2 turn +/-on the keel bolts. I broke a smaller bronze nut on the front of the keel and ran to west marine nearby and got a stainless lock nut of the same thread size and extra wide washer. I cleaned up the little extra caulk that squirted out from the final tightening process. I splashed the outside of the lifecaulk with water to help start the cure process and did that every evening for the next three nights. After I had 3 coats of barrier coat I then used an epoxy fairing compound around the seam and smile crack. Then I sanded the fairing the following day, followed up with 2 coats of barrier coat over the fairing compound. I took some photos and can forward them if you need to see a few pictures. But I have a few pics of the project at http://www.hhsa.org/ under photo for my C&C 24. -- Doug Ellmore, Sr. s/v Red Sky C&C 24 d...@ellmore.net
_______________________________________________ This list is supported by the generous donations of our members. If you wish to make a contribution to offset our costs, please go to: https://www.paypal.me/stumurray All Contributions are greatly appreciated!
